Tokyo subway ticket comparison: tourist ticket vs 24-hour pass

Tokyo has several kinds of subway tickets, with different coverage and validity periods. This article uses official Tokyo Metro pages (checked on 2026-10-28) to compare prices and conditions and give a simple way to calculate costs. Whether a pass is worth buying depends on the number of rides and routes you use in a day. Official information does not provide an answer that is always the best value. For the basics, see Getting around Tokyo; return to the Tokyo travel guide.

Key points

• Tokyo Subway Ticket: Adults pay 1,000 yen for 24 hours, 1,500 yen for 48 hours and 2,000 yen for 72 hours; child prices are half. It covers all Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway lines.
• Tokyo Metro 24-hour Ticket: Adults pay 700 yen and children 350 yen. It covers only Tokyo Metro’s 9 lines, not Toei Subway.
• Neither pass covers JR lines, and the JR Pass cannot be used on subways.

Prices and coverage

Ticket	Adult	Child	Valid on	Validity
Tokyo Subway Ticket 24-hour	1,000 yen	500 yen	All Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway lines	24 hours from the first journey
Tokyo Subway Ticket 48-hour	1,500 yen	750 yen	Same as above	48 hours
Tokyo Subway Ticket 72-hour	2,000 yen	1,000 yen	Same as above	72 hours
Tokyo Metro 24-hour Ticket	700 yen	350 yen	Tokyo Metro’s 9 lines	24 hours from first use (advance-purchase ticket); same-day ticket must be used on purchase date
Tokyo Metro + Toei shared one-day ticket	1,100 yen	550 yen	Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway	Starting method not listed on the official page

• Tokyo Subway Ticket has standard and QR-code versions at the same price. The official page states that purchase is online and that eligibility includes overseas visitors and domestic travellers living outside Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Yamanashi.
• Tokyo Metro 24-hour Tickets include advance tickets (bought online and used within 6 months of purchase), same-day tickets (from ticket machines at all Tokyo Metro stations), an IC-card version (requiring a PASMO card), and a QR-code version.

Is it worth buying?

Officially listed single-journey paper ticket fares range from 180 to 330 yen on Tokyo Metro and 180 to 430 yen on Toei Subway, depending on distance. These ranges can be used to estimate how many journeys are needed to recover the ticket cost:

Ticket	All journeys at minimum fare (180 yen)	All journeys at Tokyo Metro maximum fare (330 yen)
Tokyo Subway Ticket 24-hour (1,000 yen)	6 journeys	4 journeys
Tokyo Metro 24-hour Ticket (700 yen)	4 journeys	3 journeys

• These are estimates using single-journey fare ranges. Actual fares should be checked in the station fare table; IC card fares may differ from paper fares.
• If you take only two or three short journeys a day, separate tickets or an IC card are generally cheaper. If visiting several attractions in a day, calculate whether a pass is worthwhile.
• Neither pass covers JR lines such as the Yamanote Line, which require separate fares.
• If you stay outside the central area and transfer to private railways, calculate those fares separately as well.

How to choose

1. List today’s intended lines and check whether they are Tokyo Metro, Toei or JR.
2. If using only Tokyo Metro, compare the total single fares with the 700 yen 24-hour ticket.
3. If using both subway systems or travelling over several days, consider the 24-, 48- and 72-hour Tokyo Subway Tickets.
4. For multi-day trips with different routes each day, you can use an IC card day by day and compare accumulated fares with pass prices.

Limitations of the information

• Toei Transportation’s own day pass: Its official website was blocked by bot verification on 2026-10-28 and could not be read, so its price is not listed here.
• The official Tokyo Subway Ticket page does not show an effective date for its prices; check the official site before purchase.

Related: Haneda and Narita airports to central Tokyo and Suica and transport IC cards.